Tag: 2022

Directed by Mark Mylod [Other horror films: N/A]

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect from The Menu – I’d see bits of the trailer, and I could tell it was obviously a high budget production, but as to the story or tone, I wasn’t sure. Sure, I’d seen the film labeled both a black comedy and a satire, but it’s hard to know if that applies without actually seeing the movie for yourself.

And after seeing it, I can say that it was most definitely unique. Insofar as how much I enjoyed it, it’s hard to say – based off the story, I sort of wish I liked it a bit more. That said, I still found it quite a solid and interesting film, and while it’s quite atypical in many aspects, I do think it’s worth experiencing.

First off, I have to admit I got some vibes of The Dinner Party at points. The Dinner Party was a movie I despised quite a bit, as I found it overly pretentious in pretty much every way. The difference, though, is that The Menu is making fun of such pretensions – being a satire and going after the wealthy, such can be expected – and I thought that The Menu did a great job at that.

I should also add that while ‘black comedy’ may be a suitable description of the film, there’s not a ton of laugh-out-loud moments. There were a couple – that line about substitutions cracked me up – but more often than not, it’s a dark and sometimes uncomfortable film that may have you chuckling now and again, but outright guffaws, at least in my view, are rare. I don’t think that this hurts the film any – it’s sort of nice to see a film that’s more low-key with it’s humor – but I did think it was worth mentioning.

There are a bunch of performances in this film, but only a handful really stand out to me. First-and-foremost, I have to give a lot of props to Ralph Fiennes. This was an absolutely stellar performance from Fiennes (who I know mostly as Voldemort from the Harry Potter films, but was also in Red Dragon), and he nailed his role beautifully. In fact, I’m only more torn on Anya Taylor-Joy (The New Mutants, Marrowbone, The VVitch: A New-England Folktale, Last Night in Soho, Split) because Fiennes did such a solid job, and Taylor-Joy’s character was sort of hard to get a read on (though this was by design).

Otherwise, while there are some familiar faces, such as John Leguizamo (Vanishing on 7th Street, Night Owl, Land of the Dead), Reed Birney (The Hunt), and Janet McTeer (Jessica Jones), no one else adds near as much as Fiennes or Taylor-Joy. Nicholas Hoult (Warm Bodies) was a prick much of the time, but he got dressed down beautifully, so that was fun. Overall great performances in this film, despite the fact only a few really stand out.

Given this is more a satire than a straight-out horror-comedy, none of the violence is over-the-top, or at least humorously over-the-top. There are some disturbing scenes of emotional distress – not something I’d usually mention, to be sure – which are beautifully uncomfortable, and the violence we get is all fun

Tentatively, because The Menu isn’t an easy movie to exactly describe, I’d say that I enjoyed it. I can’t say I loved it, but I did find it a rather unique experience, and for that fact alone, I’d argue it may well be worth seeing, as I imagine the right audience would get a kick out of this one.

8/10

Directed by Nick Leisure [Other horror films: N/A]

From the lukewarm reaction I’ve seen in regards to Last the Night, I was sort of surprised by the fact it came out alright. No, I don’t think Last the Night’s a good movie, but I don’t think it’s that bad, either. Middling, with a few interesting ideas within, Last the Night might be a good time to some.

My prime interest with this movie came from the plot – during the COVID lockdowns, a teacher struggling with his mental health breaks down and plans to kill a group of his students. Naturally, this is a movie that benefits greatly from the COVID-19 backdrop, and I think it does give the film extra flavor.

Before I hit more on this, though, let’s talk about my COVID experiences. In Indiana, we never took COVID that seriously – it’s true that we were on lockdown for a bit (which is one of the reasons, on a side-note, that Libertarian Donald Rainwater got 11.4% in the 2020 Indiana gubernatorial election), but Indiana’s a conservative state, and as we know, COVID-19 doesn’t impact conservatives because Jesus.

Okay, admittedly I’m getting side-tracked. My point is, I was never on lockdown. At the time, I worked at a supermarket, which made me an “essential worker.” While others were encouraged to stay inside their homes, I went to work and made an extra dollar an hour – not nearly as impressive as it sounds when you figure in the taxes.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that while I heard so many stories of extreme isolation during COVID due to the lockdowns, I never experienced that. Watching Bo Burnham’s Inside was eye-opening to what that type of situation would be like to one’s mental health. I never had to deal with lockdown, and I can imagine that plenty of people, especially students who had to try to get used to E-learning and teachers who had to try and teach on Zoom, had a really hard time.

Brian Austin Green’s character is an interesting one. He’s been a history teacher for a long time, and is just tired. His personal life is in shambles (his wife left him), and being forced to stay indoors all day just isn’t working for him. He’s also somewhat conservative – seems a supporter of the Second Amendment, not interested in mask mandates, and professed his favorite president as Theodore Roosevelt (which is at least a better option than Ronald Reagan). And when he hears some students making fun of him on a zoom call, he just snaps.

There’s not too many horror films that focus on teachers going after students, but I did once see a 2015 movie called The Lesson, which has a similar idea. That movie had more going for – while both The Lesson and Last the Night have quite a bit of set-up before we get to the action, I think it worked far better in the former. Even so, I appreciated that this movie went with a plot that was timely to the situation we found ourselves in, even if it didn’t turn out an amazing movie.

A lot of credit should go to Brian Austin Green (Chromeskull: Laid to Rest 2, Don’t Blink), as he really gives his character his all. Toward the end, he was a bit much at times, but overall, his performance was solid. As far as the four teens go – Acoryé White, Makena Taylor, Julia Quang, and David Valdes – I’d say that Taylor did the best, though all four do decent. It did seem that Quang’s character felt like she needed to be fleshed out more – at one point in the film, she’s adamant about not leaving without her phone, and I was hoping there was a reason for that, which we never got – but overall, the performances were good.

Like I said earlier, there’s about 45 minutes or so of build-up before we get to the action, and when we do get to the action, it’s pretty much four teens being chased down by a guy with a gun. Certainly still horror, but there’s a strong thriller/suspense feel to this movie as well, and that might also play a part in some of the lukewarm reaction I’ve seen from this. It doesn’t feel like a typical horror film a lot of the time, and while I don’t think that’s a bad thing, it is noticeable.

There are some good scenes, though, of shotgun carnage. We don’t see much in the way of blood, but there’s a quick scene in which someone gets shot in the back, leading to blood splatter on a window. A couple of more emotional scenes are here too, along with a couple of awkward ones, which allows the tension to ratchet up.

Honestly, I didn’t have a problem with most of Last the Night. I didn’t think it was good, but I was engaged throughout, and like I said, I found the plot somewhat interesting. The execution could have been improved a bit, and I do think the movie’s a little below average, but I definitely think that, if the movie sounds like your type of thing, you shouldn’t be dissuaded by the more negative comments.

6/10

Directed by Timothy Stevens [Other horror films: N/A]

I didn’t quite know what to expect when going into The Ghost Lights, but I do know that what I got wasn’t exactly it. This low-budget science-fiction/horror/drama mix does have a few solid ideas and performances, especially toward the finale, but I can’t say the whole of the film was exactly to my liking.

The base idea is solid, though – the daughter of a recently-deceased newspaper reporter goes down to the ghost town of Terlingua, Texas to figure out what the ghost lights, a topic her father had worked on, are. It’s nothing special, but it has promise. We have some mysterious lights, potential government agents, superstitious locals – the elements are all here.

It has to be said, though, that a lot of The Ghost Lights felt like set-up for a larger story. Though the film is around an hour and 26 minutes, it’s not until an hour and 12 minutes in that Katreeva Phillips’ character actually reaches the small town of Terlingua. I will give the movie props for having a decently emotional finale, but I still don’t know if it was worth it. Seems like a classic case of all hat, and no cattle.

Katreeva Phillips did decent with her role. I will admit that she started out a bit shaky, and I found some of her character’s choices obnoxious, but I did applaud the emotion she brought into the role. Related, I didn’t actually care for John Francis McCullagh’s character for most of this film, but I do think he too shined in the finale. Billy Blair (Nocturna, Cherokee Creek) was perhaps the most consistent performance, and though Timothy Stevens’ character didn’t have much character, he still looked occasionally threatening.

As solid as portions of the finale were, though, there was just too many unanswered questions here, such as what exactly the ghost lights are, and what the man in black’s (potential government agent) goal was, and what, if any, interest did the United States government have in mysterious lights. It’s not like Howard’s Mill, where it makes sense that we wouldn’t find out these answers – these are things that could have been addressed in the film, had they wanted to do so.

All this said, I will say that the cinematography looked quite nice, and because they filmed in Texas, much of the scenery does look lovely. The special effects, when they use them, seem decent, and again, I thought the ending, despite leaving us completely in the dark about everything, had solid emotional resonance.

The Ghost Lights might make an interesting lower-budget science fiction movie – one, according to the credits, was at least partially funded by Indiegogo – but as a horror film, I think The Ghost Lights was rather lacking in meat. I wouldn’t go as far as to say the film is bad, and to the right audience, it may hit the right spot, but personally speaking, it’s not one that I think I’d spend time with again.

5.5/10

Directed by Paul Shoulberg [Other horror films: N/A]

For a couple of reasons, I was really hoping that I could have a good time with So Cold the River. I mean, read the plot – does it not sound intriguing? Because of that mild hope, I find myself quite disappointed with this one, and most unfortunately of all, I don’t even exactly know why.

Based on a 2010 novel of the same name, written by Michael Koryta, So Cold the River follows a filmmaker’s attempt to discover the life of one Bradford Campbell. What makes this stand out more, on a personal level, is that the movie was filmed in Indiana – both West Baden Springs and French Lick. Now, to be sure, these towns are in southern Indiana, whereas I live in northern Indiana, but still, it’s nice to have some local flavor.

Even so, while the movie definitely had potential – and more so, definitely had a decent production value behind it – I found much of this underwhelming, and as I alluded to, I’m not even sure why, to be honest. Part of it, I think, has to do with the fact that I still don’t have a clear image of who Bradford Campbell was. They dip into his past a little bit, but I just felt there was more to the story that they never got to.

I’m also not wild about Bethany Joy Lenz’s character. Even from the beginning, before the random flashes and visions and gulps of water, I just couldn’t get into her. And speaking of the water, there’s some importance given to a bottle of water in this film. No idea what that importance is – there was a scene at the end that might have explained it to someone, but certainly not me – so there’s another thing that felt off.

That’s probably the main issue. Plenty of threads were interesting – the Rebirth celebration, the bottle of water (which is connected to the origins of Bradford Campbell), the hotel – but nothing was tied together particularly well. It hurts all the more because, as I said, I think a lot of these elements had potential, and as a Hoosier, I can’t help but root for movies made in my state.

None of this is to say the performances were poor. Though I didn’t care for her character, I thought Bethany Joy Lenz (Thinner) did fine. More interesting to me was Katie Sarife (Annabelle Comes Home); her character could have had more depth, but at least she was involved in the finale. Kevin Cahoon was pretty fun as a cheery hotel worker (“That’s a fun interpretation of formal attire”), and while I think more could have been done with his character, Andrew J. West (Nightmare Code) had a good look to him.

More than anything, watching this movie makes me want to read the 2010 novel. I’ve never read anything by Michael Koryta – in fact, I’ve never heard the name – but I have to imagine that the novel is more fleshed out than the film is, and I wouldn’t mind giving it a try.

The production value behind this film was solid. The filming locations looked great – we even get extended scenes in the West Baden Springs Hotel, which just looked beautiful. If you’ve not seen what the hotel looks like, you’re missing out.

Everything looked nice in this movie, and I think it’s a damn shame that So Cold the River didn’t have the story to back it up. I will say I thought the finale was decent, but still, shining a bit more light onto exactly why the things that were happening were happening would have been nice.

5.5/10

Directed by Jason Rader [Other horror films: N/A] & Jason Von Godi [Other horror films: N/A]

I can’t say that much about The Hoot Owl stands out. This low-budget slasher, filmed on location in the unincorporated community of Hagansport, Texas, did feature some okay gore, but despite being just an hour and 11 minutes, it felt a bit slow, and the massacre toward the end doesn’t really make up for the build-up.

Certainly, though, it was nice to get to know the characters here. It helps that generally, the cast is strong. Katharine Franco was perhaps the most forgettable, Carl Bailey (The Lotus, Evil Under the Skin) the most shaky, especially with some of the dialogue he had. Still, Augustine Frizzell made for a fair lead, and the friendship between J.D. Brown (Late Fee, Hunters, The Cemetery, Cross Bearer, The Burnt House) and Jason Skeen (By the Devil’s Hands) felt pretty authentic. Oh, and as someone who enjoys the occasional ganja, Roger Schwermer Jr.’s character spoke to me.

Still, it wasn’t until the final 18 minutes when anything of that much interest happened. And to be fair, when the gore came along, it was decent – a man’s head was sort of torn in half with a chain, someone else’s head was lowered into a bear trap, another got impaled through the eye. There was even a rather gruesome childbirth, shown in more detail than I personally cared for, toward the end. For a lower-budget film, the gore here showed a lot of promise.

The story, though, wasn’t exactly great. It had the basics down, but as around 50 minutes of the movie is just build-up and character-building, almost entirely without anything else going on, I can’t say it was that engaging. It was fun to set the film in rural Texas; that location was on point. I don’t think it makes the rest of the film much better, though.

We did have a bit of a psychological element toward the end regarding Augustine Frizzell’s character, and while I think it could have been executed better, it was still okay. Nothing game-changing, or even that surprising, but at least it had a little flavor.

Overall, though, I don’t think The Hoot Owl is a movie that will end up being that memorable at all. For a lower-budget slasher film, it might be okay for a watch or two, but I don’t think it’ll become a cult classic anytime soon, and I definitely think it could have done some things better. Killer poster, though.

5.5/10

Directed by Zach Cregger [Other horror films: Weapons (2025)]

Ever since the trailer first dropped for Barbarian, I was intrigued. It’s not often that modern horror trailers do much for me – I’m not much of a theater-going guy, so trailers aren’t really something I focus too much on. Still, the trailer for this one looked decent, and so I went into this movie – luckily having avoided all spoilers – with higher-than-normal hopes.

As it is, aspects of this film are no doubt impressive. The base story isn’t exactly stellar, but the narrative structure certainly stands out. About halfway through the film, we’re propelled two weeks forward, following an entirely new character without much in the way of context. Later on, we’re given a flashback explaining a little bit of the origins of the house so much of this film takes place in.

Where my doubt begins to rear its head is the antagonistic force. I don’t entirely object to the idea we’re presented with, but with the solid set-up, I was truthfully expecting something a bit more. I mean, the set-up was great – a mysterious underground passage in a house, the house in question being the only livable-looking house in an overly dilapidated neighborhood, a room with just a bed, bucket, and video camera. Barbarian really started out strong, and the suspense was real.

I don’t know Georgina Campbell (All My Friends Hate Me), but she did quite well here, and made for a solid focal point. Though he didn’t appear all that often, Bill Skarsgård (It) made for an okay, awkward presence. Similarly, Richard Brake (Outpost, The Dare, Perkins’ 14, Tremors: Shrieker Island, Batman Begins) doesn’t appear much, but makes an impression when he does.

Oh, and here’s something somewhat amusing. We’re introduced to a new character about halfway through the film, as I said – an actor who’s accused of rape, which leads him to the house of horrors – who I thought looked a lot like Justin Long. I wasn’t sure who the actor was, so I already had it in-mind to call him the ‘Justin Long look-alike’ in my review.

Turns out it’s actually Justin Long. faceslap, or whatever it is the kidz are saying nowadays

Justin Long (Jeepers Creepers, Lavender, Drag Me to Hell, House of Darkness) is a face I never expected to see in this movie. His character was arguably quite an asshole, but he was definitely the funnest thing here. In fact, there’s a sequence in which he’s trying to measure the creepy hidden rooms and tunnels in the basement, in order to sell the house for a higher amount (as it’d add square footage). Completely oblivious to how creepy these tunnels are, he’s going all in to measure them, and that was hella funny brahs.

Still, I don’t care for the main antagonist. I just found the scenes in which characters were dealing with it the least captivating of the movie, and given that final 15 minutes or so dealt exclusively with that, I wasn’t enamored with the finale. Aspects were okay, such as the sequence on the water tower, but I sort of cringed during Jaymes Butler’s reassurance immediately being proven false – that particular scene just felt too anticipated.

We do get a little gore here, though, which is always fun. Early on, someone’s head is repeatedly slammed into a wall, getting devastated. Someone’s arm is torn off, and the poor fella is then beaten to death with his own arm. Another lucky individual gets their eyes gouged out and their head pulled apart. Barbarian isn’t exactly a gory film, but it can be striking when it wants to be.

Oh, and here’s a random tidbit – while portions of the film were filmed in Brightmoor (a neighborhood of poor condition in Detroit), much of the movie was filmed in Bulgaria, a fact that becomes very obvious if you watch the credits roll by. I noticed that Todor Chapkanov was the First Assistant Director – Chapkanov is the director of some Sci-fi/Syfy films, such as True Bloodthirst, Ghost Town, and Copperhead – so seeing his name in a movie of this caliber amused me.

Ultimately, though, while aspects of this film really did shine, I can’t say Barbarian will end up being that memorable. No doubt that its charms worked for many people – much of the reception I’ve seen has been pretty positive. I do tend to think the film is above average, even though I definitely don’t find it anywhere close to amazing. Still, it’s a decent slice of modern horror, and no doubt one could do much worse than this. I just don’t think it’ll stick out that well in the years to come.

7.5/10